Zero23 and Ranter’s Groove, or the politics of absence, the guitar in the absence, on Kaczynski Editions
https://kaczynskieditions.weebly.com/
https://kaczynskieditions.bandcamp.com/
Kaczynski Editions is an independent Italian record company, located in Tuscan, which started quite recently with the production of clearly experimental and avant-garde music. Zero23 and Ranter’s Groove are two of the musical realities it is promoting with courage and success.
Ranter’s Groove is a duo formed by Niet F-n to electronics and by Giuseppe Fantini to electric guitars, while Zero23 is a trio where the two Ranter’s Groove’s artists are joined by the cello played by Macarena Montesinos.
The organic is very similar and respond more to the structures of contemporary music than to those of rock or popular music. Both CDs offer a rarefied music, with few musical elements and where the instruments are treated more like sound generators than as note-makers. This is nothing new. The music of Zero23 and Ranter’s Groove offers a rarefied and gaseous atmospheres a than solid and structured musical structures, but its beauty comes precisely from these structures of absence that don’t give a structured approach. Improvisation seems to dominate, but I don’t exclude the presence of predefined elements used as a floating macrostructure. Where do these two groups distinguish themselves from other (unsuccessful) operations of this kind?
First of all, both CDs show excellent taste and perfect balance. Their kinetic mechanism is perfectly oiled and measured, there are no imbalances, each of the components knows exactly when and how to fit into a musical narrative that lives on an almost theatrical play of essential and well-calibrated musical beats.
If we take the Zero23 as an example, the insertion of Macarena Montesinos cello doesn’t alter the balance previously achieved with Ranter’s Groove by Niet F-n and Giuseppe Fantini, she simply enriches and integrates it. As I risk a judgment, I would say that in their music there is nothing left to take away and nothing to add. This kind of balance is a rare thing. I have often seen this type of project fail because, in the economics of discourse and musical narration, it was missed the “right moment” in stopping, in removing and / or adding, in stopping one’s ego, in allowing to his own technique of putting himself at the service of music, to get involved with a careful and global listening.
I believe the Kaczynski Editions has made an excellent choice by focusing on these two groups. A courageous choice, of course, but I also think carefully evaluated. “Musica per Camaleonti” and “Songs from the eternal dump” express a high-density kinematic music perfect to integrate abstract and iridescent images. This is a great start, keep it up!
NeuGuitars 